Woman picks up pipe bombs, drives to police

A woman who was getting ready for an estate sale found pipe bombs inside an Aurora home Wednesday.

Lynn Sabia, who owns an estate sale business, put the pipe bombs in her car and drove to the Downers Grove police station 15 miles away. Police dismantled the explosives safely and said the public was never in any danger.

"A typical day at the job, working, cleaning out the house, pulling everything out, organizing and lots of things that didn't look right," said Sabia.

What didn't look right turned out to be homemade pipe bombs. Sabia and her co-worker said the small tubes that were found in the garage did not appear to look that threatening.

"You can buy bigger fireworks, legal fireworks than what we found, so they didn't look that dangerous," said Sabia. "I didn't realize how dangerous they are."

Two of the devices were hidden in an unopened brand new mailbox. She and her employees kept working. Later, Sabia took the devices to the Downers Grove station, which is 15 miles from Aurora.

"It's my hometown. That is where I felt comfortable," said Sabia.

Police immediately closed off the entire area after looking at the devices. The bomb squad and ATF were called in and the devices were detonated right outside the police station.

The person who lived in the Aurora home where the pipe bombs were found took his own life in April. The man's family and a neighbor were surprised to learn about the pipe bombs.

"I wouldn't expect anything to come from that house at all. A real surprise for me," said Kirk Pillar, neighbor.

Sabia is thankful nothing happened to her or anyone else. She and a co-worker are now laughing about the incident and have a new slogan for the company.